The St. Johns herald., 1887-12-22
WANTED, A NOVELTY.
FThere Is No New Thing Under the S


 FThrre Is No New Thing Under the Sum-"
 We unie in hallng the electric tele- graph as the wonder of the age but the ida is as old as 1C37, at least Scher- went in that year expla ns how two individuals an communicate with each other ' means Of the magnetic needle.
 In 1746 Le Monnier. by a series of ex- peIiments in the Royal Gardens in Pari I, Showed low electricity could be trans InIttcd throu Il iron wire $50 .thoms in length, and in l753 there was a remark able descr. pt on of the ele-tr.c telegraph in the Scots Magazine, in an article entitled "An Expeditions Method or Conveying Intelligence. by Charles Marshall. In I774 We find an electric telegraph in full working order, anu capal le of transmitting mes agts.
 This was he invention Of George Louis Ie-age. Of Geneva, who annoUnl, il in 17G0. His instrument was comp sed of iwenty-four metallic wires, separate from each other and inclosed in hon. conducting substance. Each wire ended in a stalk. mounted with tile ball of elder wood suspended by a sik thread. When stream of electricity, no matter how slight, was sent througl the wir', Eu, such movement designating .omc letter of the alphabe
 A few years later, in Arthur Young's "Trayels in France" we req of a sim liar machine. the inv nt.on of a M. Lomond, of Paris.
 Photography is only a skillful devel- opment O. avery old idea. Sun-paint- ing by the daguerreo yfe was known to Leonardo da incl in the fifteenth cen tury. The art then lay in oblivion til 17G0, when it was clearly indicated in book publ shed in Paris, entitled Gip- haptie," written by TipIIanie de Ia Roche.
 Jos 'ah We'd weed, Sir Humphry Iavy, and James Watt made experiments on fhe action of light upon nitrate of liver at the beginning of the presei t ce tIry. and many years after, among inc old hou ehold lumber of Watts partner, Mia thew BouItdn, was found represen- tation oi the old premi5 at Soho, on a silyered pper plate, apparently taken by some such process.
 We often hear the Thames tunnel cted as an example of the wCnderful genus of modern engineering, but the tunnel under he Euphrates at ancient EaDyIon was equally wonderful, and that under the wide mouth of the harbCr at Marse!lie9 was a greater enterprise, while both the eancient works were Us sklii.uly eX- ecuted as the modern:
 In Il museum at Venice there gro numerous fire arms of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that foTes:ail many of cur most recentimprovements. such as revolv ng pistols, riaed muskets, and breech-oading cannon.
 Steam locomotion by sea and land lad always be'.n dream of scientists. As early as 1543 Bia-co de Gafay trie to accomplish it itlthe harbor of Barcelona. Denis F pin made similar Htten.ft at Cassel Il 1707. But it was EDt till the rublem of inc steam engine had been solved by Watt that Tho idea of steam lo,omotion could Le put ill practice.
 Thou h Denis Papin was unsuccessful i'm h attempt to effect steam l como tion. 10 him is due the credit of having first throw Il out the idea of atmospheric iocomotion. and another Frehchman, Gauthey, in 17S2. projected q method of eonI eying parcels and merchandise similar to tho now familiar pneumatic tube.
 The re- ping-machine is an old inven- tion. Barnabe Goo-e, in book trans lated om the German, entitled The Whole Are of Husbahdrie." published in l577, speaks of it as a wurn-out in- vention-a thing which was woo to be use'l in France. The evice vas lowe kinde of carre with a couple of wheeles, and the irunt armed with Sharp syckles, whiche, forced by the bcaste lhro gh the corne, did cut down al be- fore it. This tricke might be used iq lev Il and champion countr ys, but with us t wolde make but i4lfavored woorke
 Gun. owder was known to the Romans, though they only used it for fl eworks, and the secret of the terrible and destructi e Greek fire has cen lost altogether.
 Suspension bridges were known in China for centuries, and the people of the same country used coal gas regularly or lighting purposes long before we cid.